The Art of Play

The aim of this Symposium and Arcade is to survey the games that brought us to this moment with their unique creative vision, and to frame the field moving forward, as game makers finally abandon the question "CAN games be art," and begin to ask ourselves in how many ways they WILL be.

For those of you who know me, it may come as a surprise that I don't relish the idea of tromping halfway across the country on a whim. I would, however, have hopped on a plane to Pennsylvania in a heartbeat had I known about this event sooner.

The Art of Play was a conference on video games unlike any other. Hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, it was a symposium that took place at the end of March and the beginning of April. It sounds like they had some amazing lecturers (An oxymoron? Nay, I say!) and a fantastic forum of game designers and theorists. Oh, to have heard the musings of Heather Kelly of the Kokoromi collective!

So, I'm a big dork. I think we've established that pretty well at this point. I think it's just that I've been kind of starved on the creative front since most of my day is spent walking people through how to make their computers function they way they want them to. I hope something like this conference is hosted by the Walker or something while I'm living in the Cities.

Because of the folks involved, it should come as no surprise that The Art of Play also has some great web design. While you're there, check out the way the background and menus move when you click on things and the little floating "Thank You to Our Sponsors" bubble. Now that's some quality web design!

There's also a gallery of innovative games listed in the Arcade link on the site, so head on over already and play with some art!